Wal-Mart has told Computer Weekly that it is "receiving products tagged at the pallet and case level".

The retailer also said that it would be reading RFID tags in 1,000 of its stores by the end of April, in an effort to identify in-store process inefficiencies.

AMR Research said, "With large suppliers such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever tagging a large proportion of their products, there's no reason why the same processes could not be used by other retailers."

"However, there may be some caveat from Wal-Mart over intellectual property that stops the big suppliers from reusing those processes with other retailers."